The first generation Lotus Elite, known as Type 14, debuted at the 1957 London Motor Car Show at Earls Court, bearing chassis number 1006. Development of the car had taken a year, with input from “carefully selected racing customers.”
The Type 14 was notable for its innovative fibreglass monocoque construction, a stressed-skin glass reinforced plastic unibody that replaced traditional chassis and body components. This construction method resulted in a lighter and stiffer car, offering improved driver protection. The first 250 or 280 body shells were made by Maximar Mouldings at Pulborough, Sussex, before manufacture was handed over to Bristol Aeroplane Company. All production Elites were powered by a 75 hp, 1,216 cc Coventry Climax FWE straight-four engine, achieving a fuel consumption of 35 mpg‑imp (8.1 L/100 km; 29 mpg‑US).
The Elite saw success in motorsport, particularly at Le Mans and the Nürburgring. The Elite won in its class six times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, as well as two Index of Thermal Efficiency wins. Les Leston, driving "DAD 10", and Graham Warner, driving "LOV 1", were noted UK Elite racers. In 1961, Lotus attempted an outright win at Le Mans with a modified Elite, called the LX, equipped with a 1,964 cc engine and other enhancements, but the lead driver, Innes Ireland, withdrew before the race.
The attachment points for the rear suspension arms were regularly observed to pull out of the fibreglass structure. The car also suffered from a resonant vibration at 4,000 rpm. The car had independent suspension all round with transverse wishbones at the front and Chapman struts at the rear. The rear struts were so tall, that they poked up in the cabin and the tops could be seen through the rear window from a car behind. The Elite achieved a drag coefficient of Cd=0.29.
From 1974, Lotus produced a larger, four-seat Elite (Types 75 and 83), replacing the Elan Plus 2. The Type 75 was announced in May 1974. It featured a shooting brake body style and a steel backbone chassis evolved from the Elan and Europa. The initial engine was a 1,973 cc Lotus Type 907, producing 155 hp. In 1980, the Type 75 was replaced by the Type 83, or Elite Mark 2, which featured a larger 2,174 cc Lotus 912 engine, a galvanised steel chassis, and a Getrag Type 265 gearbox. The Type 907 engine ultimately became the foundation for the 2.0 L and 2.2 L Esprit power-plants, the naturally aspirated 912 and the turbocharged 910.
In 2010, Lotus unveiled an Elite concept car at the Paris Motor Show.
The ownership and history of the more than 1,000 original Elites is maintained by the Lotus Elite World Register. The Type 907 engine used in the later Elite models became the foundation for engines used in the Lotus Esprit.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted. Information regarding primary archives, autobiographies, period programmes, or specialist publications was not used in the creation of this article.